


Remember

by DarkMeB



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-25
Updated: 2011-01-25
Packaged: 2017-10-15 02:06:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/155891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkMeB/pseuds/DarkMeB
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spoiler: WARNING! WARNING! There is some Spoiler from Seeing Red! Some SPOILER to "Villains". Then there is the AU. (However, the Spoiler Warning might be pointless at this time...but just in case.)</p><p>Author's Note - This is dark and brutal. Be forewarned. Does it have a happy ending? Yes. It does...well, but maybe not for everyone.</p><p>Summary: It wasn't supposed to happen. One young man was going to make it right...even if it killed him.  A tale of vengeance and redemption.</p><p>Disclaimer: All characters from Buffy, and familiar phrases and scenes belong to Joss.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remember

Willow was very angry. She was on her knees with the woman she loved dead in her arms. The rage burned deep within. Willow could feel it and she began to taste it...to savor it. She could feel it taking control...feel it burning inside. She suddenly felt a longing and desire that joined with the rage. It tasted good. It tasted like vengeance. She looked up and clenched her teeth together, basking in the rage as someone on the beach basks in the sun. The fire was in her eyes.

 _I'm going to kill him,_ she thought as she cradled Tara's body in her arms. _There is nowhere he can run. Nowhere he can hide. No one he can go to for help. And when I catch that bastard, no one but me will hear his screams._

Outside in the yard of Buffy Summers home, Xander was holding onto Buffy, pleading with her to stay with him. "For God's sake, please don't leave me."

This tragedy was far worst than anything anyone could have possibly imagined. It came from out of nowhere. It interrupted the lives of people who have become closer than any family could have ever been. But isn't that how tragedy strikes? It doesn't care for the young or for the old. It doesn't care about the healthy or the sick. It doesn't care about the rich or the poor. It doesn't care about those in love or those in pain from a terrible heartbreak.

Tragedy respected no one.

Tragedy fed on all.

Tragedy fed on them. And it wasn't done feeding.

After Buffy was taken to the hospital and Tara was taken away from Willow, she snapped. She changed. Her hair turned midnight black and Xander had seen the transformation after he pleaded with her not to do anything rash. Her eyes were as black as the void. She brushed him aside as if he were an insignificant gnat.

Then...she went after Warren.

... ...

Willow found him on a bus that had left town and she intercepted that bus. With her hand held out in front of her like a street cop halting traffic, the bus just stopped and time seemed to stand still for the passengers and the driver. But not for Willow. Not for Warren. She walked casually onto the bus and took him out of it with incredible ease. He was under her spell and had no power to resist and yet she allowed him to keep his presence of mind because she wanted him to know what she intended for him. She took him deep into the woods, allowing the spell to release him so he could try something stupid.

He did.

He still carried his gun. He raised it at her to finish her off.

She opened her hand and the gun came to her. She dropped it on the ground and looked at Warren, her eyes as black as night.

 _"Please! Somebody help me!!"_ Warren screamed.

Willow brought her finger to her lips. "Ssssh."

His lips were immediately sealed up as if by stitches. He stared at her horrified.

"I'm so bored now," Willow said as she regarded Warren with her cold, dark eyes.

She slapped her hands together.

Warren's arms suddenly went behind his back as if by an unseen force. His hands were put together as if they were to be bound. However, they were bound in the worst possible way. The flesh of his arms molded together as one. His two hands behind his back were now one. He began to feel like a pretzel. His eyes widened in horror and he whimpered, helpless.

Willow then clicked her heels together, her black eyes never leaving him.

Warren's legs suddenly locked together and he watched, horrified, as his two legs molded together into one, just as his hands had. He would have fallen if he had been allowed to stand on his own, but Willow was holding him up with her magic. He was floating above the ground and was terrified like he never was before. Terrified beyond measure.

"I'm going to hurt you," Willow said softly, stepping slowly toward him. She tilted her head, her eyes boring into his. "Slowly. Badly. So bad that you will die...but not right away. Not before you beg for your life because you took my Tara. You took..." At the mention of Tara from her own lips, she stopped. Tears began to form in her eyes and she remembered how they had met. She remembered what had almost driven them apart. She remembered the promise she had made to Tara not too long ago. That there would be no more magic. No more magic.

Tara had wanted it that way.

She had wanted...

Willow suddenly collapsed onto the ground. Everything that had happened since that horrible day suddenly took its toll on her. She cried heavily. She sobbed so hard, her body was shaking. She forgot about Warren. She forgot about magic. All she could think of was Tara and keeping her promises.

As she cried, something happened.

Her hair that had turned black suddenly turned red again. The magic she had used stopped.

She cried long and hard, and then when she was done and couldn't cry no more, she rolled onto her back...and Warren was there.

He was standing on his own two legs, his arms at his sides, and his mouth free of stitches. The gun was back in his hand and murder in his eyes. The magic Willow had used on him before had gone, and when it did, it released its hold on him. As Willow lay on the ground sobbing, he took the opportunity to find his gun before the magic returned.

"What's the matter, Red? The magic gone?" Warren asked angrily. "Is it, you bitch? Oh, you shouldn't have lost it now, because you brought me out here to be punished. Guess what? The tables have turned, now, haven't they?"

Willow didn't respond. She didn't care any more.

But Warren did. And he showed her that he cared by proceeding to kick her while she was down. "I'm going to kill you, bitch!" he shouted angrily. "Just like I killed your girlfriend!" He kicked her some more for emphasis, aiming for her stomach. "What's more, you don't have anyone out here to help you! Not your super-heroine Buffy! Not Mighty Man Xander! No one is here to help you! Do you hear me? No one is here to help you!" He aimed the gun at her.

He tried to steady himself as he caught his breath. He was still reeling from the magic she had used on him. As he regained his equilibrium, his hand became steadier and he leveled the gun at Willow's head. But he heard something and it began to bother him. What he heard was absolute silence. No birds. No insects. No scurrying of squirrels in the underbrush. Just silence.

The silence was loud. And suddenly a voice from behind was even louder.

The voice said, "I'm here."

Startled, Warren turned his head...and something smashed into his face. He fell to the ground...out cold.

The young man dropped his club he had used to hit Warren with and knelt beside Willow. She was curled up into a ball and her hair had fallen over her face. Gently, the man turned her over onto her back and brushed aside her hair. She looked up at him with eyes that were so pleading.

"Please..." she said hoarsely, almost in a whisper. "I-I just want to die..."

Jonathan Levenson, tears in his own eyes, shook his head sadly. Just as softly, he said, "I can't let you do that, Willow. I'm going to help you. I'm going to make it right. Whatever it takes, I swear to you I'm going to set this right."

He picked her up and carried her away from there. He carried her a long way through the woods. There was a campsite that he had prepared and he took her there. He placed her gently onto the ground, on top of a sleeping bag. He took a pillow out from his gear and placed it gently beneath her head. He covered her in a blanket and again, brushed the hair from her eyes. She was still crying, but it was a silent cry now.

He took a bag from his gear and began to make preparations. It would take an hour...maybe less, but he knew he had the proper ingredients for what he needed to do and was determined to get it right.

As he prepared, he talked to Willow. "If I get this right, it will all be fixed. And I mean all of it. Then, Warren will never bother you again. He should have never bothered any of you in the first place. He just thought he was something that he wasn't...and I guess I did, too. That's the only excuse I have for hooking up with him and that other loser." He paused. "I guess I'm a loser, too." He glanced at Willow and saw that she was watching him. But she didn't say anything, so he continued, "You're very lucky to have friends like Buffy and Xander. The love you guys have is real. I know it is. I've seen it. I've also seen your pain and your suffering. You guys...you guys have been through so much and yet...you're still a family. I wish life had been kinder with me. I wish I could have been a member of your family than the two I got stuck with. God, we made such a mess. And, well, who can I really blame but myself? I'm so sorry, Willow. You know...I-I find myself thinking about all of those times at school when you interrogated me. Do you remember? I had confessed to you that I had pissed in the swimming teams pool, and-and you tried to make me confess to planning a killing spree in the cafeteria...I think of those times and I always thought that you were so cool." He shrugged. "Still do. And Buffy saved me that day, too. Did you know that? She stopped me from killing myself. God, you would think I would learn then, but I didn't until it was too late." He looked at her. "I can fix what happened so that it doesn't happen again. And I will fix it...because you deserve to be happy. And so does Buffy and Xander. And Anya, too, but I-I can't really fix that." He sighed. "You won't remember any of this if I succeed. But if I don't...just remember that I am sorry. I-I love you...you know, in a plutonic sense. I love all you guys and I hope the best for all of you. You should be with the ones you love."

With that said, he poured out white sand in a circle around him and Willow. He prepared the rest of the ingredients, but just as he was about to cast the spell, there was a gunshot.

Jonathan stared at the blood in his chest and then he fell backward onto the ground.

Warren stepped into sight, walked up to the circle and pointed the gun at Willow. "Hello, you bitch."

Willow whispered something..."Remember."

He fired. And Willow died.

Warren felt triumphant. He looked up to the heavens and shouted, "I am invincible!"

"No...you're dead. You're just too stupid to realize it."

Surprised at hearing a familiar voice, he turned around and saw that Jonathan had struggled to his knees. Warren aimed the gun at him but Jonathan held up his hand. The gun magically came to him and he used it to aim at Warren.

Warren held up his hands. "Okay...buddy! You are the one who is invincible." He laughed nervously. "Holy fucking shit, man! I stand corrected, okay? You don't need to shoot me."

Jonathan shook his head. "No. I'm far from invincible. I'm dead, too. But at least I'm also smart enough to know that." He paused. "And I know something else that you don't, too."

"What the hell do you know?"

"I have to kill you...twice."

A puzzled expression crossed Warren's features. "Twice?"

Jonathan fired.

The bullet snapped Warren's head back and he fell lifeless to the ground. With Warren finally dead, Jonathan dropped the gun and dragged himself over to Willow, but it was too late. She was dead. Jonathan hung his head and wept bitterly. He wept until he remembered what he had to do...before it was too late. He couldn't hang on for much longer...but he had to so that he could still fix things.

He just had to.

He began the spell.

_____ _____ _____

"I don't know what I would do without you and Willow," Xander said, sitting with Buffy on the bench out in the Summers backyard. "I love you guys so much."

Buffy hugged him. "I love you, too."

Xander returned the hug.

Suddenly, Warren walked up to them and began to level his gun.

 _"Warren!"_ someone shouted from behind him.

Warren spun around and there to his surprise was Jonathan looking like death warmed over, blood soaking the front of his shirt. Warren looked at him, startled. "What the fuck...?"

Without hesitation, Jonathan leveled his gun and fired once.

Warren went down with a bullet to his head and he would never get up again. Jonathan fell, too. He could no longer fight this battle. It was time to give it up.

Willow, Tara, and Dawn came running out of the house. They saw that Buffy and Xander were okay and that Warren was dead. But Jonathan...?

"Hey, he's-he's still breathing!" Dawn exclaimed.

"Call 911!" Buffy told Dawn. She was sure that one of the neighbors had already done that after the gunshot, but she wanted Dawn out of harms way.

Willow and Tara were both kneeling next to Jonathan. Willow was looking at him, and then at Warren. She looked puzzled.

"Jonathan's been hit?" Xander inquired. "But...there was only one shot."

At that moment, Willow said, "Remember," under her breath. She didn't know why she said it, only that she did. And everything that had happened in the other time line, she remembered. Tears welled up in her eyes at what Jonathan had done for her...for all of them.

"Jonathan...please don't give up," she pleaded.

"Willow...is-is Tara..." Jonathan coughed up blood.

Willow tried to keep his head up and Tara helped. "Sh-she's right here, Jonathan. You saved her."

Tara looked at her quizzically.

"Then...it's all right...now?" He coughed up blood. "Did I...did I fix it?"

"Yes..." Willow nodded. "Yes, everything is okay now. You fixed it like you said you were going to, bu-but you have to wait. Please. Help is coming..."

Tara grabbed Willow's hand. "Will..." she said.

"Just don't give up. They're coming."

 _"Willow!"_

Willow looked into his eyes as she kept his head up. "No..."

"He's gone, Will," Tara said with tears in her eyes.

Willow was dumbfounded. How could this be? She looked at Tara. Tara took her hands, helped her to her feet and hugged her. Willow hugged her back and cried.

Xander knelt beside Jonathan and moved his hands over Jonathan's eyes, closing them forever. "I'm sorry, Jon...you will be missed, in spite of what you and your friends did."

The sirens came closer. The EMT's arrived. The police also came. Investigations would later prove that the gun Warren had intended to use, and the gun that Jonathan had used were one and the same. They would not be able to explain how that was so. But it didn't end there.

Tragedy had struck. It had struck once and it would strike again. It always does. It strikes when it is least expected. It strikes anyone at any time. And if it strikes once, it should be left alone. For if Tragedy is bargained with, it just trades itself for a different Tragedy.

But in this Tragedy, Willow remembered. And she would not forget.

Not ever.


End file.
